The present paper undertakes a theoretical study of a simple solar still coupled to a compression heat pump. In fact, a mathematical model has been developed using mass and heat balance. It is through a comparison with the performance of the conventional solar still under the same weather conditions that the performance of the proposed solar still is evaluated. The simulation results showed that the efficiency of the solar still with compression heat pump is 75% higher than that of the conventional solar still. The influence of some design and operational parameters were also studied. The predicted values were found to agree well with the existing experimental data. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.